When ideas pop into a chef's head

Chef James Avery hosts a pop-up dinner at Heirloom Kitchen in Old Bridge to test out his restaurant concept. <137>People paid $75.00 each to watch him cook a meal and enjoyed the evening eating the dinner with the chef. Photo: Mark R. Sullivan On Friday May 16,2014 Old Bridge<137>(Photo: MARK R. SULLIVAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

By the time his proposed seafood and chowder house opens for business at the Jersey Shore, James Avery will have fed hundreds of potential customers.

Avery, 33, of Wall, has been holding pop-up dinners at Heirloom Kitchen in Old Bridge and other venues for several months to test his Town Fish restaurant concept and get face-to-face feedback on potential menu items.

The clever chef held his last pop-up dinner at Heirloom Kitchen on May 16, where he wowed his guests with a five-course meal, starting with hand-crafted hushpuppies in a classic tartar sauce. The intimate dining experience continued with charred Rhode Island squid and his signature "Jersey Green" chowder, which is loaded with local clams, green peppers, potatoes and fennel sausage.

The main dish was a light and flaky herb-crusted hake with couscous, peas, chorizo and wild Maine mussels.

All dishes, even the luscious butterscotch tart, were paired with wines from Domenico Winery in California. The cost: $75 per person.

"This gives people the opportunity to try my food," he said.

Many already know his face. Avery has been a sous chef on Gordon Ramsey's "Hell's Kitchen" televised culinary competition for several seasons. He also was corporate chef at a local restaurant chain that included Jack Baker's Lobster Shanty in Point Pleasant Beach, and his family owned a cafe in Lake Como for a few years.

Now he is ready to build his own brand.

Avery said he noticed while filming in Los Angeles last fall that many young chefs would hold pop-up dinners at established restaurants or rent space in a temporary location to test and refine their dining concepts. He teamed up with Judy Rosenblum and Neilly Robinson, a mother-daughter team who owns Heirloom Kitchen in Old Bridge, to bring this West Coast trend back East.

"I believe it's important to support these chefs for 'pop up dinners' as it gives them a creative platform to get their food out into the world and see what kind of energy comes back their way," Robinson said in an email.

The high-end kitchen retail store is outfitted with a commercial kitchen that seats 36 people. She noted that the open kitchen plan allows guests to watch the chefs work and, in return, allows the chefs to gauge the reaction of their customers.

"It's an opportunity to see the chefs in action and talk with them about what they are doing," Robinson said.

Sally Owens, owner of So Tasty Vegan, is using pop-up dinners to formulate her vegan restaurant concept and develop a loyal customer base. She also sells plant-based meals at the Montclair Farmers Market aside from working full-time as a manager at the Williams-Sonoma in Montclair.

"It's a great way for me to build a place in the community," she said.

Owens, 30, of Verona, has been making dinner at Trattoria Rustica in Montclair on Wednesday nights since May 2013. She said this is a win-win for her and the restaurant. She gets to be creative without taking a huge financial risk while bringing in customers on a typically slow night.

Owens will hold her first pop-up vegan dinner at Heirloom Kitchen on July 10. The $75 dinner is more of a hands-on cooking class in which she will demonstrate how to make squash blossom stuffed with homemade herb ricotta, kale salad strawberry, and rhubarb crisp with seasonal produce donated from Whole Foods Market in Marlboro. (Whole Foods has partnered with Heirloom Kitchen to provide ingredients for these types of classes because its Marlboro store does not have its own demonstration kitchen.)

"This is every chef's dream," Owens said, noting that these venues allow her to focus on the food without all the headaches and responsibilities that comes with ownership.

Still, Owen and her boyfriend/business partner, Kevin Murray, 29, also of Verona, are working toward something more permanent.

Transporting equipment and food to and from someone else's commercial kitchen can get tiresome. The couple would prefer to have more stability. But where? How much will it cost? Can they generate enough income to sustain it?

"We just started to have a conversation about opening up a cafe so we could have a home base," she said. "It's definitely a goal."

Avery is much farther along in his planning. His concept is to create Town Fish, a seafood and chowder house with sophisticated dishes that start with the local catch and seasonal produce. The idea is to create a cross between a trendy European bistro with a comfortable neighborhood restaurant, where customers can sample his Jersey Green chowder or get a quick flounder sandwich after a long day at the beach.

How much will his dream cost? Anywhere from $200,000 to more than $1 million, he estimates. Location, square footage and a liquor license are variables that can sway the cost considerably.

Avery is currently in negotiations with potential investors to secure financing for his concept. In the meantime, he will continue to organize pop- up dinners and give potential customers a sample of what they can expect when he finally opens for business.